Why drop on Len today?

Len’s acknowledged affair can’t have been a secret until today – there are apparently affidavits involved. It can’t have been about affecting the campaign for mayor – otherwise the Slaters, dad and boy, would have dropped it well in advance of the election date.

I’m speculating too but I think there is possibly a bigger story that may come out tomorrow, involving Len’s opponent in the previous mayoral election. Judge Gittos will release his decision tomorrow as to whether there is sufficient evidence for John Banks to stand trial for making a declaration that he knew to be false relating to anonymous donations whose source he knew. A court may get to test whether the defence that he did not look at what he signed exonerates him from falsity.

His campaign finance manager’s assertion that Banks was kept away from the finances is ludicrous, when evidence was brought forward that not only did he solicit donations, he knew who had given them, he wanted them kept secret so when he did favours for his donor there would be no comeback. If John Banks has to make his case in court, the implications are much more severe. It will be a much bigger story.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think Len’s affair is a hanging offence or a matter for resignation. He’s a good man and has been a very good mayor, for Manukau and for Auckland. He’s not the first political leader, or follower for that matter, who has strayed, nor will he be the last. It almost comes with the territory. There is no evidence that there was any question of suborning, quite the opposite in fact.

It can’t have been about affecting the campaign for mayor – otherwise the Slaters, dad and boy, would have dropped it well in advance of the election date.

Consider the timeline: if the Slaters dish dirt before the election, Brown is embarrassed but … Palino is the alternative, and he has his own “baggage”. So Brown still wins, and can thus claim a mandate. The story goes away because “the people have spoken”.

Doing it after the election is an attempt to invalidate an election they couldn’t win. It’s a time-honoured tactic from the US Republicans, a school the NZ Right know well.

Slate has over-played his hand in this. Displaying all his panty-sniffing detail delights his sewer and revolts everyone else. More to the point, the main broadcast media in general is not that interested in politicians private lives.

Talkback radio will have a field day, but they’ve never been a friend of Len Brown anyway.

Agreed Gobsmacked. Slater dishing the dirt prior to the election would have certainly been a fail as Len had a huge lead. While he may have lost some votes many of those voting for the minor left-leaning candidates (Penny Bright and John Minto had more than 20,000 between them ) would have probably moved to Len in his defence. Plus those that couln’t be bothered because Len was “certain to win” would have been mobilised.

Also, there was no “election day” – this was a postal ballot. When do you play the card? Too early and Len can minimise the damage. Too late and you risk that most people have alrteady voted.

I believe Slater and the right knew they couldn’t win by playing this grubby card prior to the election so had prepared their slimy little scheme for launch immediately afterwards. Won’t work though – Len’s big enough to see this one off.

Gobsmacked is close. This will weaken Brown’s standing and make him far less effective. The councillors will now have to think a lot harder about getting in beside Len. Noone on the right wants a bunch of wet fair weather centre right anyway. They won’t be any better than Brown. This weakens him for next time when a real alternative is mobilised.

All I can say that if any politicians, either national or local, were to be disqualified from holding office because they had an affair, the ranks would have been considerably thinned over the years.
It scares me to see elements of the hypocritical, shrill American fundamentalism becoming so visible here.

The story is worthy of breaking (if an author at The Standard had something similar on Bridges/Joyce/etc would they not break it?) but the level of detail displayed by Slater is pretty horrific.

That goes from “breaking a story” to “lets throw shit – a hard as we can. Fucker.”

It was the first time I had read WhaleOil for some months. Wish I hadn’t

[lprent: Would we break such a story. Actually that answer to that is usually no.

We’ve had a number of similar stories provided over the years about various public figures. This includes ones about Cameron Slater and some of his extramarital affair(s) (some have been subsequently made public) and various non-public legal difficulties. Like the Len Brown story the authors here generally don’t consider them to be either political nor in the public interest. There are quite a few stories like that which lie forgotten in the Drafts.

They belong to the pantie-sniffers like some of the more untalented jonolists and of course that supreme hypocrital dickhead Cameron Slater himself.

It does get politically interesting when people subsequently start to actively lie or make up stories about whatever their activities are. At that point their political judgement has to be called into question. But it doesn’t look like Len Brown is going to be a Weiner.]

Yeah, it’s not the breaking… it’s the timing. I mean, why wouldn’t you manage the release of something like this, if you could?

Sounds like WO has a problem with the story getting too big, from your comment? Too much sleaze may bring in ‘the poor Len’ sentiment? I’m not going over to have a look, so will rely on your considered opinion…

The timing off this scandal was more more orchestrated than a North Korean military parade.

I for one, reckon karol is right on why it was delayed. She was running for office and would have been a no show if this came out. Sadly for her she’ll always be remembered as Len’s girl. Public service career over!

She’s finished. Blowing the lid like that won’t do her any favours in the long run. She’s either being used by the sleazeball and his mates or she is complicit. I’d be interested to know how long she has known them and when her nomination form was submitted.

I thought complicit made more sense when Brown said it ended just before the campaign started on Campbell and seemed reticent when it came to her current employer.

My feeling is, as wrong as it could be but based on the initial comments, is she started getting involved with Browns opponents – who may have known already (like the sort of ‘open secret’ we see in political circles) and he got worried. Worried enough to tell his family.

yes – it comes down to an almost accidental turn of phrase – along the lines of “knowingly signs incorrect return” as opposed to “signs incorrect return”.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been phrased that way if parliament at the time had known what a steaming turd like banks would do with it. Not even finance company directors would have been brazen enough to sign a document bindfolded while loudly saying “lalalalalalala”.

IF he received anonymous donations from Dotcom and Sky directly, he would have then done what? Given the cheques to the treasurer and said what? “these are anonymous donations?”

Then when asked to sign the form which he knew would contain lists of anonymous donations he would do what? Check to see if the funds he got from Sky and Dotcom were, or were not listed there?

I would love Graeme’s view on whether his reading of the law allows someone to abdicate (as Banks is claiming) to someone else, rendering his signature, irrelevant to what it is deemed to be assenting? If not reading it, absolves him from any discrepancies, why require his signature?

I don’t know why you all say this isn’t a big deal when the man himself only chose to tell his wife last week. According to Len the affair ended mid year. Why did he wait so long? Did he think it wasn’t something worth sharing to her and his family?

Regardless of when Cameron Slater released the story Len has always known and no doubt knew the Slater knew. If he released it before the ballot papers went out we would have known at the same time as his wife.

So why not question Len on why he decided to disclose this information so late? Or better yet why didn’t hr just keep it in his pants?

I am sure if anyone of us were to shag something at work there would be huge consequences. So why not Len?

Seriously, who the fuck is dumb enough to trust politicians?
We keep them accountable via elections and publicly-available information. The only people who need to trust politicians are tories, because they hate elections and publicly-available information. But then tories also get off on knowing about other people’s sex lives.

“John Palino, mayoral candidate, restaurateur, businessman and actor, spent some time this week giving me a lesson on acting techniques……..
……This is a good thing, he says; he has no political baggage; he is a “breath of fresh air”. Not being a politician might also make him sound like a dreamer, a not very serious one. He introduced me to his campaign manager, former National Party president John Slater. So he’s serious, all right. And his political naivety might work in his favour, who knows?”

Another thing there was a story on here within 60 minutes of Simon Bridges interview on Campbell Live and comments were firing in. However it took The Standard nearly 6 hours to post something. Bias much?

Good evidence that we think before we post, unlike the premature ejaculators at WhaleSpew, who spoof up the first hate thoughts that come to mind, all over their cheap keyboards. You should try it sometime, and we’ll await your next post, which should be some time around 2037.

Dunno about the timing, but I always get a laugh at the 1950s schoolboy language used by WhaleSpew and his rabid army. FFS, I haven’t heard anyone talk about rooting ratbags or dodgy ratbags since I lost contact with an ex’s mentally challenged 80 year old mother. Is that really how Lusk talks? Whenever I hear anyone talking about rooting, I immediately think their shoe size beats their IQ hands down. “Gis a root, darl” might be silvery tongued seduction in the sickness that passes for amorous adventures in the sewer, but it just makes me cringe.

Just had a small thought on timing, which obviously couldn’t have anything to do with the paragons of virtue in this case, but would this have been saved for even later if dragon mum had been rewarded by the voters at the local body elections? Does more than one participant share the right wing desire for instant gratification?

Hinting that any threats about dragon mum’s career prospects would come from Brown’s camp doesn’t make much sense either. She’s firmly on the Slater/Lusk/Cactus/Collins side of the fence and would be more likely to look in that direction for personal advancement.

If she gave Len 4/10, why doesn’t Blubber Boy make his score public as well? If he’d done better than Len, he’d be so proud he’d be shouting it from the rooftops.

Disclaimer: anything written above has nothing to do with any people whom I would classify as actually living and human.

I reckon Whale Oil simply held off from publishing until he had proof. The affadavit was dated today 15th October 2013. Why? Because she was also an election candidate and held off with the affadavit until after HER campaign. If Slater had the proof a week ago, I’m betting Brown would not have been elected by the one-eyed religious voters of South Auckland.

If Slater had the proof a week ago, I’m betting Brown would not have been elected by the one-eyed religious voters of South Auckland.

Who knows? There could have been a number of possible scenarios. South and West Aucklanders mainly vote for Brown because they prefer him to someone who is more right wing and who would be more likely to do the government’s bidding.

And if this affair had have been made public, the campaign would have got more coverage and probably a lot more people would have voted. More lefties who voted for a truly left wing candidate, may have diverted to voting for Brown to keep Palino out.

My opinion on the timing isn’t that it has anything to do with Banks. While Slater Sr might have been helping Palino, Whaleoil is a pretty good friend with Cameron Brewer. He’s pretty much the heir-apparent for the right in Auckland for the next election. He didn’t run this time around because he didn’t have the profile to go up against Len. He would lose and there goes his dream of being Mayor of Auckland.

So you wait until after the election. Then you attempt to take Len down, have another election, where Brewer can run against someone with a similar lack of name recognition.

I also think the fact that Chuang was running, might have played a hand in it. But I find it hard to believe Whaleoil and Cook would have sat on the story if she had won.

On the topic itself. I don’t really care if Len Brown has been sleeping around. I think, possibly, it would be easier if he stepped down for his family. It’s not going to be nice to go through this in the limelight and its the wife and kids that are going to suffer. Especially his kids. I feel quite ill at the prospect of the next couple of weeks for them.

And the media has been horrendous. Full of racism and sexism. Most of New Zealand doesn’t come out of this well, quite frankly.

Yes, poor poor Len Brown. Didn’t stand a chance did he with such a well orchestrated right win plot put together over many years. Poor wee little lamb

I mean its not like he is a man of elected standing with a suposed long history of being able to make wise decisions and all. No , its everyone elses fault and the issue of blame lies elsewhere, that will be opicked over ad nauseum here no doubt.

You know , he has shat on his family and his Sth Akl supporters from a big height. Ive seen him at church and spoken to him.

If he is so easily sucked into supposed plots like this, then why the fuk do we think he can run a city.

Why drop on Len today? Pretty obvious that it provides some distraction from the John Banks hearing, but I think it’s more simple than that.

Chuang was a C&R candidate who was not elected. Having failed in her campaign, but probably not yet realizing that she had no political future, she provided the material to people she thought were her friends (the kind of people that gently encourage Melissa Lee that she’s MP material) in the Right. And she got dumped on, seriously, and will have made herself fairly undesirable to any political movement or local government employer.

Having worked with her previously while a student (although not closely), I doubt that spite or simple “sour grapes” was her motivation. It is a damn shame for her how this has all panned out.

I don’t want to sound misogynistic (handle gets that accusation levelled at me pretty readily), and I’m not in touch with her at all (although we have some mutual friends) but I think she is quite a naive/damaged person, who has as much as laid out her objectives.

I’ prefer Brown to the other main candidate, but am not a great Brown fan.

I always thought Penny Hulse would make the best Mayor.

But failing that, I prefer a flawed Brown to the nasty Brewers, and Palinos. They would do too much damage to Auckland. Their flaws are far worse, IMO, as they would do far too much damage to too many people.

And I prefer Brown as Mayor way more than I like having scumbag Banks as an influential MP. He’s financially corrupt, even if he follows the letter of the law – kickbacks for funding!

But, this will play out as it does.

If there’s any justice Brown will stay mayor for now, Banks will be told he faces trial tomorrow, and Cameron Brewer and John Palino will never be mayors… and journalists will stop paying attention to Sleaze Oil.

The right are looking a bit desperate. They know they can’t win elections on policies alone. The last few years have been won on the back of slick John Key and Crosby Textor PR, spin, divert, attack, etc. That is now losing it’s power, so what do this unscrupulous lot have left? Sex scandals?

There is nothing acceptable about the Mayor of a large city in relentless pursuit of a girl young enough to be his daughter. There is nothing acceptable about that after having persuaded her to engage in his sordid fantasy he proceeded to scheme, connive and carry on with her for the better part of two years – often in rate payer funded hours, have sex with her in rate payer funded council offices and use rate payer paid staff to pass on hotel room keys for sexual encounters.

Rewind to a few years ago and recall/google the fuss made by the press, the left blogs (and whaleoil) about Mr Worth, a man of considerably less importance to Auckland City, a man who inappropriately approached, fantasised about and texted women. The noise over this was deafening and Worth’s position became untenable. Using that yardstick it’s hard to imagine how Len Brown can have any personal or professional integrity after his monumental character-questioning cock up.

As for castigating the messenger, it’s disingenuous – the right time was only when the woman provided an affidavit. Commentators on the left might try to imagine their outcry were this John Key or Gerry Brownlee who screwed a woman 25 years their junior and had their wicked way with her all about the beehive, all the while trotting out the wife and family to campaign. Would they be apologists then?

“There is nothing acceptable about the Mayor of a large city in relentless pursuit of a girl young enough to be his daughter.”

Len Brown is too old to relentlessly pursue anyone, and with his heart condition he would probably cark it before taking too many steps. Although relentlessly pursuing someone using a mobility scooter could work. And the woman in question is not a young girl. Obviously you don’t hang around 30 year olds much.

Yeah and like no other pollies are hiding affairs. I thought it was the left who were supposed to get all morally uptight about this stuff, turns out many on the right are great arbiters of everyone elses morals. It is just kind of handy, don’t you think? It is between two people only, Brown and his wife.

I do not wish to have this person’s name mentioned because the point I am about to make depends not on the politician’s actual name but on the facts and the outcome. Where I live, our MP, a certain National MP, had an affair and fathered a child.

We of the Labour Party consciously chose not to make any political capital of that. Our candidate, a practising Catholic, was in agreement. This electorate has a strong Christian base. The facts of the matter had been published in the local paper.

The MP in question was returned with a much reduced majority and Labour won the election nationally. The majority was the lowest ever held by that MP. It is possible that a vigorous ‘hate’ campaign might have toppled him.

The local wags were saying, “Old bloody ****, never thought he had it in him.” Others were disapproving. We will never know, of course, whether a negative campaign would have worked.

I am still convinced our collective decision was correct in not making this issue a campaign issue. This story is related to put the lie to Hypericum’s final question.

The actions of Cameron Slater are not correct. They reflect the content and kaupapa of the “Truth” of which he was the failed and final editor.

Yawn, Auckland local body politics, as if the rest of us could care, actually we could only wish forlornly to have such a ‘sex scandal’ rocking our Mayoral election, here in Wellington it would be cause for massive celebration should either the incumbent Celia or the challenger (snigger) John have been found to be having a heated tryst with an attendant round at the Freyberg pool,

This is really a story of loser’s isn’t it, Blubber boy the senior the poor loser of the National Party Presidency, the campaign manager for the loser of the Auckland Mayoral race,

Blubber boy junior, hell where to start with this legend of losing, apparently His mind went first and after that it was downhill all the way, at birth an angel looked down upon wee Cam and annointed Him with the reverse Midas touch, since then everything Blubber boy has touched has turned to shit and if there is a lesson to be learned from this gross waste of oxygen, it’s the one where you point Him out to your kids with an admonition ‘son don’t do what He has done’,

Bevan Chuang, or is that said Chuang Bevan, is She more peeved about the gifts of ‘cheap’ undies Len the tight-arse old fool showered upon Her, god only knows what She expected to gain from outing the little bedroom,(boardroom), affair with Len at this late stage of the game,

A real loser sad to say, Bevan, or is that Chuang, lost Len and i am picking this as two years worth of Len’s Lust where as these affairs go, decrepid old bloke fiery young woman, there’s likely to have been that ongoing promise of divorce and marriage at some point in the future, i distrust Lens version of when this relationship actually ended and just when He informed the Wife, but if there are revelations to come, come they will,

Blubber’s both senior and junior have now had their USE of Ms Bevan and a further loss was her failure to gain election to the particular community board, the last straw perhaps, where to now for Ms Bevan who culturally may have lost much face from such revelations,

My pick for Ms Bevan’s belated outing of Len as a cheap philanderer is that politics have little to do with it, Hell having no fury such as a woman scorned would seem to be the lesson here, and of course where-ever shit happens to be gathered in sufficient quantity it’s odds on that Blubber boy will be found wallowing in it…

I see shit shoveller Slater is down in the gutter again, digging dirt on people.

Its interesting that this seems to be all Slater can muster, certainly no tangible policies to oust Brown from office and legitimately replace him with a right wing politician.

Maybe Cameron should take up an editorial role at a cheesy tabloid paper. Oh that’s right, been there, but, oh dear, didn’t work out. Seems hiding behind a far right blog is all the poor little twit has to offer.

Yep voters hired the man based on his policies not his personal life. Still watch the MSM throw as much mud at him as they cn muster in the hope he will step down and maybe a preferred right wing troll can slither into the role.

I’ disappointed in John Minto speaking against Len Brown and suggesting he step down. John is always campaigning for fairer and ethical treatment. This is Len Brown’s private ‘affair’ and doesn’t mean that he can’t do his job.

He has spoken about it clearly and honestly. John refers to Bill Clinton and his troubles. The big reason he had the bloodhounds after him was that he lied about it so blatantly, and didn’t have the chutzpah to say go to hell it’s my business. He would have won a lot of people over if he had just said that a gentleman wouldn’t discuss his private relationships with a bunch of gossipy voyeurs and scandal hounds.

And thinking about his support from religious and family-oriented Pacifica people being lessened. They can be very understanding of people’s failings, including their own, and forgiveness also.
I think they will respond to his admission and his contrite message. And also the desire of a bottom-feeding political player in the revelation.

It is interesting to hear how news from Radionz altered what John said when reporting to give the story more bite. John said he was afraid that the matter might impact badly on Pacifica support and leave him a lame duck mayor. The report said Len had become a lame duck mayor.

I had a look at doco on Tuhoe Operation Eight. And there was this method of spiking up the story both from news media and in reports by private investigator spies Thompson and Clark
in reports they make to business people who under scrutiny by protesters. It is an advantage to the company to dramatise and distort the reports, which are a profitable line of business for them.

This is a very unhealthy environment and it’s not a clean and fair democracy. And I don’t think that John Minto should be resorting to questionable methods to oust a rival using the argument of possibe less effective implementation of the mayor’s duties as an excuse.

Moderation at 10.04am, can’t edit to tidy up meaning. 2 minutes yesterday trying to get onto The Standard and had to resort to going through Google – took few seconds. There are barriers to jump over to get comment up.

Thanks lprent this long wait happened yesterday, maybe busy then too and my equipment is getting dated so I don’t know whether that’s a feature. Thinking about checking line for noise I think, or something?

lprent
Amazing but could be an indication that John Campbell is highly watched and talked about, so that anyone on his show doing a good performance gets some stardust. And Simon is very nice looking. A winner for NACTs Got Talent – for looks anyway.

Simon was (is) a lawyer and a Crown prosecutor. Might have Boston Legal pretensions. Perhaps Parliament is just to sit out before he finds his true calling. Dealing with the legality and rightness of putting our country of vulnerable long coastlines at risk for a mess of pottage and mumbles, such are promises (whether legally encapsulated or not) is taking him to the Edge of Reason. Into which he might fall and then he would be out of the NACTs kete of fish.

Yes! It does reflect badly on the media and also on that notorious group the “Citizens and ratepayers”
around out way they have almost disappeared as everyone was becoming wise to their National party connections. However they were not ALL bad, just like other politicians.
But I differ in that I have NEVER trusted Len Brown, in fact my experience is that he is just a pinkish John Banks. Auckland has a long history of bad Mayors that the noticeable exception of Myer Robinson makes all the clearer.
In the end he will be remembered as “White Elephant” Brown for his ludicrous transport policies.
Judging by some comments on radio this AM it has indeed damaged Brown quite badly in South Auckland.
BTW I just love the way that Xtians love to characterise their behaviour as CHRISTIAN.
Poor old Jeshua would be absolutely horrified to see what his teachings have been twisted into and how it was used to justify truly immoral behaviour.

I would not look at it like that.
Len Brown has got the “cojones” and he will get a third term.
The public will know that he isn no suffed capon with his tubes tied.
And I mean the ones between his ears.
Slater and his cronies need to get some looser underpants and start dsome deep breathing exercises.

According to last nites TV Auckland’s own ‘Loose head Len’ did the damage in the Ngati Whatua Room…SHAAME…One should not fool around on sacred grounf….its like telling a lie on a Marae…a breach of trust…Structural Integrity is Important

I feel sorry for the families…they are innocent bystanders….good luck to them

According to last nites TV Auckland’s own ‘Loose head Len’ did the damage in the Ngati Whatua Room…SHAAME…One should not fool around on sacred grounf….its like telling a lie on a Marae…a breach of trust…

You’re an idiot, a bad effort at pretending Maori, and clearly have no idea WTF you are talking about.

What does the Herald think it’s doing. They are absolutely hounding the man – see the numbers of the stories on the web page about it. It goes far beyond a basic paragraph or two

What’s going to satisfy them – some family member trying to harm themselves?. It’s happened before.

At this point could I suggest that people ring the news media outlets and suggest they shut up. Perhaps the Standard could also start closing comments that are not to do with the motives of the disclosers – Whale oil etc.

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